i  f^.' 


THE  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA 
Buxton 


r\- 


Library 

OF  THE 

University  of  NortH  Carolina 

This  book  was  presented  by  the  family 
of  the  late 

KEMP  PLUMMEK  BATTLE,  '49 

President  of  the  University  of  North  Carolina 
from  1876  to  1890 

Cp283 
B99e 


00034013399 

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Form  No.  471 


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THE   CHURCH    IN    AMERICA,    PARTICULARLY 

IN  N.  CAROLINA,  IN  ITS  EARLY  HISTORY. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  which  at  once  strikes  the  attention  of 
the  ecclesiastical  inquirer,  that  all  through  these  American  States 
which  were  Colonies  of  Great  Britain  before  1776,  whether  among 
the  Independents  or  Puritans  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  on 
the  North,  or  among  the  Church  of  England  Establishments  in 
Maryland  and  Virginia,  at  the  South,  or  among  the  more  central 
Provinces,  there  never  lived  a  Bishop  of  the  English  Church  to 
ordain  and  perpetuate  her  ministry,  to  confirm  her  baptized,  and 
perform  other  essential  duties  appertaining  to  the  office  of  Bishop. 
This  anomalous  condition  of  things  continued,  till  American  In- 
dependence released  this  country  from  subjection  to  England,  and 
left  the  Church  here  free  to  take  measures  for  securing  the  Episco- 
pate, of  which  she  had  been  deprived  for  nearly  200  }7ears.  It  is 
to  the  Church  only,  in  contradistinction  to  the  State,  of  England, 
that  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  these  States,  owns  herself 
to  be  indebted  under  God,  for  her  first  foundation  and  a  long  con- 
tinuance of  nursing  care  and  protection.  To  the  English  State  she 
owes  no  gratitude  ;  for  that  State  only  kept  her  in  the  trammels 
of  State  Bondage,  and  subjected  her  to  the  ever  veering  policy  of 
Statesmen  and  Dissenters,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  whose  interest 
it  was,  that  the  Church,  though  the  Tree'of  the  Lord,  should  not 
bear  fruit  after  its  kind,  whose  seed  is  in  itself,  for  the  propagation 
of  itself.  F&r  as  the  Church  receives  the  Primitive  Constitution 
of  her  ministry  as  it  exists  in  the  Word  of  God,  and  in  the 
Apostolic  Ages,  so  no  propagation  b}T  her  ministry  could  be  made 
except  from  that  seed  which  Jesus  Christ  Himself  first  planted, 
when  He  chose  His  Apostles  and  said  unto  them  :  "As  My  Eather 
hath  sent  Me,  even  so  send  I  you."  "  Lo !  I  am  with  you  always 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world."     Yet,  for  nearly  200  years,  the 


2  American  Church  Review. 

Church  in  this  country  was  left  without  a  Bishop  upon  its  own 
ground.  By  customary  usage,  which  seems  to  have  taken  its  rise 
from  his  connection  with  the  "  Virginia  Council"  of  which  he  was 
a  member,  the  Bishop  of  London,  from  the  year  1606,  exercised 
spiritual  jurisdiction  over  the  American  Plantations,  which  it  was 
never  expected  that  he  should  visit.  In  1701,  in  the  reign  of 
William  and  Mary,  the  Charter  of  the  "Venerable  Society  for  the 
propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,"  was  obtained,  and 
by  this  society  missionaries  from  England  were  furnished  to  all 
the  Colonies,  except  Maryland  and  Virginia  which  had  their  own 
establishments,  up  to  the  period  of  the  American  Revolution.  But 
as  all  the  clergymen  who  had  come  over  prior  to  1701  had  been 
licensed  by  the  Bishop  of  London,  the  practice  was  continued  by 
the  ..society,  of  placing  its  missionaries  under  the  charge  of  the 
same  Bishop.  So  that,  in  some  sense,  the  Bishop  of  that  See  all 
along  from  1606  up  to  the  American  Revolution,  was  the  Bishop 
or  Diocesan  of  all  the  English  Colonies  in  America.  This  whole 
country  formed,  as  it  were,  one  enormous  undivided  Diocese  un- 
der the  nominal  jurisdiction,  so  far  as  the  Church  of  England  was 
concerned,  of  a  Bishop  who  was  first  brought  into  connection  with 
it  through  one  of  the  Virginia  Companies,  and  lived  3000  miles 
off.  Any  actual  oversight  of  such  a  Diocese  was,  of  course,  im- 
practicable. The  Churches  in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  however, 
had  deputies  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  under  the  name  of  com- 
missaries, which  none  other  of  the  English  Provinces  had.  The 
duty  of  an  ecclesiastical  commissary,  under  the  English  Law,  we 
are  told,  is  "  to  supply  the  office  and  jurisdiction  of  the  Bishop,  in 
the  outplaces  of  the  Diocese."  Of  course,  the  rites  of  ordination 
and  confirmation  were  not  within  his  powers,  since  he  was  only  a 
Presbyter.  For  certain  purposes  only  of  visitation  through  the 
Diocese,  such  as  inspecting  the  state  of  the  churches,  delivering 
charges,  and,  in  some  instances,  administering  discipline  though 
not  to  the  extent  of  deposition,  was  he  in  the  Bishop's  room,  and 
the  Bishop's  vicegerent.  In  1689  the  first  commissary  was  duly 
commissioned  by  the  Bishop  of  London  for  the  Colony  of  Vir- 
ginia. This  officer  was,  as  we  have  said,  deputed  to  none  other 
of  the  Provinces  but  Virginia  and  Maryland  ;  and  it  appears 
from  the  history  of  those  times,  bad  as  they  were,  that  even  this 


Thr  Church  in  America.  3 

imperfect  substitute  for  episcopal  supervision,  was  of  signal  service 
to  the  Church  in  these  parts,  though  the  office  fell  into  disuse  be- 
fore 1760. 

As  far  back  as  1672,  in  the  reign  of  King  Charles  II.,  it  had  been 
resolved  by  the  King  in  Council,  to  send  a  Bishop  to  Virginia, 
and  Dr.  Alexander  Murray,  who  had  been  the  companion  of  the 
King  in  his  travels,  was  the  person  nominated  to  be  Bishop  of 
Virginia,  with  a  general  charge  over  the  other  Provinces.  His 
Letters  Patent,  but  not  signed  by  the  King's  name,  it  is  stated  by 
Gibson,  Bishop  of  London  fifty  years  afterwards,  were  extant 
among  the  records  of  that  See ;  but  the  design  of  Jconsecrating 
him  fell  through,  it  is  asserted,  because  the  endowment  was  made 
payable  out  of  the  customs.  It  was  the  era  of  "  the  Cabal 
Ministry,"  who  thought  little  and  cared  less  for  the  Church,  either 
at  home  or  abroad,  and  had  no  mind,  at  any  rate,  that  it  should 
be  a  tax  on  the  revenues. 

As  we  have  before  said,  the  Venerable  Society  for  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts  had  been  founded  in  1701,  the 
last  year  of  William  and  Mary's  reign — an  important  era  in  the 
history  of  the  Colonial  Church  of  America,  because  it  was  this 
society  which  becamp.  the  ehief  sonre.e  of  support  to  the  Chn_rgh_ 
Ministers  in  the  Colonies,  except  those  of  Maryland  and  Virginia. 
Its  missionaries,  at  times  to  the  number  of  100,  were  at  work 
at  almost  every  important  town  on  the  Atlantic  coast.  Three  dis- 
tinct and  urgent  applications  for  an  American  Episcopate  are  re- 
corded in  the  reigns  of  Queen  Anne   and  George    I.,    u^fder  the 

'  \ ■ ; JF.    I  I — s 

augpiges  of  frbis  society  ;  but  just  when  they  were  on  The  point  of 
obtaining  all  they  desired,  some  untoward  event,  occasioned  either 
by  death  or  by  political  troubles,  would  frustrate  their  plans.  The 
society  had  even  gone  so  far  as  to  purchase  at  Burlington,  X.  J., 
in  the  year  1710,  at  an  expense  of  £600,  a  convenient  Mansion 
House,  which  was  also  put  in  thorough  repair,  together  with  15 
acres  of  land  and  12  acres  of  meadow,  for  the  use  of  the  future 
Bishop,  whose  charge^ as  designated,  extended  "  from  the  East 
side  of  Delaware  River,  to  the  utmost  bounds  Eastward  of  the 
British  Dominions,  including  New  Foundland  ;"  while  another 
Bishop  was  designed  to  be  settled  .at  Williamsburg,  ya..  to  whom 
was  allotted  the  district  extending    "  from  the  West   side   of  the 


4  Amebic  an  Church  Review. 

Delaware  River,  to  the  utmost  bounds  Westward."  But  this,  as 
well  as  another  plan  in  1726  for  consecrating  a  Suffragan  in 
Maryland  to  the  Bishop  of  London,  came  to  nought. 

But  as  the  century  waned  on  after  1750,  the  chances  of  obtain- 
ing a  Bishop  for  America,  became  more  and  more  hopeless,  though 
vigorous  efforts  were  still  made  for  that  purpose.  Difficulties  and 
misunderstandings  with  the  Mother  Country  began  to  thicken  ; 
and  the  odium  which  raged  against  the  political  measures  of 
England,  especially  the  stamp  duty  of  1764  was  zealously  turned 
by  the  enemies  of  the  Church,  against  the  Church  herself.  The 
hostile  denominations,  both  in  this  country  and  in  England,  con- 
centrated their  forces  against  the  Church,  in  a  committee  in  Lon- 
don which  carried  on  constant  correspondence  with  a  kindred 
committee  in  this  country,  forming  together  a  sort  of  anti-episco- 
pal "  League  and  Covenant."  The  English  Ministry  sought  to 
disarm  their  opposition  by  frowning  down  the  revived  scheme 
of  the  Bishop  of  London  for  sending  over  Bishops  to  America, 
and  by  giving  assurance  to  the  agitators  that  no  Bishop  should  be 
consecrated  for  America  without  their  consent. 

It  was  about  this  period,  1765,  that  a  controversy  broke  out  be- 
tween^ Church  Clergyman  of  Cambridge,  Mass.,  an<3_a_j)r  May- 
iiey^_a.Cpijgi^gj^on_aLMLoister  of  Bositon^on^erning  the  course 
that  had  been  pursued  by  the  "Society  for  propagating  the  Gospel 
in  Foreign  Parts,"  which,  the  congregationalist  charged,  instead 
of  sending  the  Gospel  and  the  ministry  to  the  destitute  parts  of 
the  continent,  had  sought  out  the  better  settled  and  more  com- 
fortable portions  of  the  country  and  there  stationed  its  missionaries 
as  intruders  upon  the  descendants  of  the  first  settlers.  He  also 
inveighed  against  the  plan  of  appointing  Bishops  for  America^ 

This  controversy  is  remarkable  chiefly  as  having  been  partici- 
pated in  by  Seeker,  then  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  ex-ofiicio 
President  of  "the  Venerable  Society,  etc."  In  his  tract,  he  had 
occasion  to  assign  the  reasons  for  desiring  the  appointment  of 
Bishops,  which  furnish  a  graphic  picture  of  the  grievances  under 
which  the  Church  in  America  labored.  Xhe  principal  reason s 
assigned  by  him  for  desiring  a  Bishop,  are,  the  want  of  confirma- ' 
tion  of  the  baptized,  the  need  for  superintendence  of  the  clergy, 
and  especially  the  savingcandidates  for  Holy  Orders  the  trouble, 


The  Church  in  America  5 

costjmJLjisk--^^  from  -England.     While  all  de- 

nominations had  the  means  within  themselves  of  perpetuating  their 
ministry,  the  members  of  the  Church  of  England  alone,  he  says, 
were  excluded  from  a  right  whose  exercise  was,  in  their  view, 
essential  to  their  existence,  as  a  Church.  Would  they  think  them- 
selves tolerated,  were  they  obliged  to  send  all  their  candidates  for 
the  ministry  to  Geneva  or  Scotland  %  The  expense. of  the  voyage 
to  and  from  England  he  sets  down  at  not  less  than  £100  ;  nearly 
one  fifth  of  those  who  had  taken  that  voyage  had  lost  their  lives 
either  by  shipwreck  or  by  sickness,  and  in  consequence  of  these 
discouragements,  one-half  of  the  Churches  in  many  of  the  Pro- 
vinces were  destitute  of  Clergymen.  The  Archbishop  went  on  to 
state,  that  the  proposed  Bishops  were  never  designed  to  have  any 
concern  with  persons  who  do  not  profess  themselves  to  be  of  the 
Church  of  England,  but  to  ordain  ministers  for  the  members  of 
that  Church,  to  confirm  their  children  when  brought  to  them  at 
a  fit  age,  and  take  oversight  of  the  Episcopal  Clergy.  But  it  was 
not  desired  in  the  least  that  they  should  be  vested  with  any  tem- 
poral authority,  exercised  either  by  provincial  Governors  or  subor- 
dinate Magistrates,  or  infringe  upon  or  diminish  any  privileges  or 
liberties  enjoyed  by  any  of  the  laity  even  of  our  own  Com- 
munion. 

It  thus  appears,  from  the  foregoing  declarations,  that  an 
English  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  taught  by  the  situation  of 
affairs  over  in  this  country,  had  worked  his  way  out  from  the 
hampering  bonds  of  a  Legal  Establishment,  to  the  pure  concep- 
tion of  an  Episcopate  exercising  only  spiritual  functions  of  office, 
and  especially  disclaiming  any  connection  at  all  with  the  functions 
of  the  State.  Such  was  Archbishop  Seeker's  idea  of  the  proposed 
American  Episcopate.  Such  was  the  primitive  idea  before  the 
time  of  Constantine.  Such  is  the  true  American  idea.  The  time 
was  not  yet  come,  in  the  order  of  Divine  providence,  for  realizing 
it  in  fact.  But  there  was  something,  at  least,  gained  in  the 
Church  having  been  educated  up  to  that  point  of  a  scriptural  and 
primitive  Episcopate,  friend  and  foe  thus  becoming  familiarized 
with  the  conception.  In  due  time,  a  watchful  providence  would 
take  care  to  prepare  the  way  and  the  time  for  its  full  realization. 
But  the  storm  of  an   eight  years'  war  was  destined  first  to   sweep 


6  American  Church  Review. 

over  the  laud  and  reduce  all  things  to  chaos,  ere  the  States,  and 
with  them  the  Church,  could  emerge  free  and  independent,  to 
begin  together  their  new  career.  Of  course,  the  whole  subject  of 
the  Episcopate  remained  in  abeyance  during  the  Revolutionary 
War.  Of  the  Clergy  of  the  Church  of  England  some  took  sides 
with  the  American  Patriots ;  others  chose  to  transfer  their  services 
to  Colonies  of  the  British  Crown,  the  West  Indies,  the  Ber- 
mudas, particularly  Nova  Scotia,  which  became  in  1787  the  first 
Colonial  See  of  the  English  Church,  on  this  Continent.  Others 
of  the  Clergy  closed  their  Churches,  remained  at  home  and  opened 
schools,  but  with  limited  success — for  the  war  of  the  revolution 
left  the  youth  of  the  day  but  little  opportunity  for  education.  The 
mass  of  the  Church  of  England  Laitjr,  among  them  such  men  as 
General  Washington,  Patrick  Henry,  Richard  Henry  Lee  the 
mover  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Francis  Lee  one  of 
the  signers,  the  Carringtons  and  Graysons  and  Mercers,  with  hun- 
dreds of  other  names  well-known  to  fame,  took  sides  against 
England;  for  the  quarrel  of  all  these  great  men  was  with  the 
State  of  England,  not  with  the  Church  of  England,  in  which 
they  had  been  baptized  and  to  which  they  remained  faithful, 
through  the  conflict  of  arms,  to  draw  their  last  breath  in  the  peace 
of  her  Holy  Communion.  Peace  was  proclaimed  in  America  on 
the  19th  April,  1783  ;  but  it  dawned  upon  a  land,  especially 
through  the  rural  districts,  with  roofless  and  forsaken  churches, 
with  broken  altars  and  a  scattered  and  diminished  Clergy  \ 

But  to  everything  under  the  sun,  the  wisdom  of  Solomon  tells 
us,  belongs  a  time  or  crisis,  which,  if  embraced,  stamps  human 
efforts  with  success,  but  is  followed  by  ruin,  if  it  be  past  or  lost. 
To  the  Church  that  survived  the  wreck  of  war,  the  blessing  of 
God  was  given  to  improve  its  crisis,  in  a  signal  manner,  for  all 
time  to  come. 

The  first  General  Convention  of  this  Church,  after  two  prelimi- 
nary meetings  of  Clergy  and  Laity  from  different  States,  assembled 
in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  in  the  month  of  September,  1785. 
The  two  most  important  subjects  which  came  before  this  body 
were.(l)  the  preparation  of  a  general  Ecclesiastical  Constitution, 
and  (2)  the  adaptation  of  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England 
to  the  altered  situation  of  the  American  Church — both  of  which 
objects  were  at  length  happily  accomplished. 


The  Church  in  America.  7 

The  General  Convention  met  again  the  following  year  (Oct. 
1786),  among  other  purposes,  to  consider  the  answer  that  had  been 
received  by  the  Church  Committee  appointed  to  correspond  with 
the  English  Bishops  concerning  the  consecration  of  Bishops  for  the 
Church  in  the  United  States.  That  answer  being  favorable  to 
their  consecration,  Drs.  White,  of  Philadelphia,  and  Provoost,  of 
New  York,  were  invested  with  the  office  of  Bishop,  4th  Feb., 
I787,in  Lambeth  Chapel,  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  assisted 
by  the  Archbishop  of  York  and  the  Bishops  of  Bath  and  Wells, 
and  of  Peterborough.  To  these  two,  Dr.  Madison,  of  Virginia 
was  afterwards  added,  having  been  consecrated  in  Lambeth 
Chapel,  19th  September,  1790.  And  thus  was  "the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church"  in  this  country,  the  old  Church  of  England, 
after  nearly  two  centuries  of  waiting,  and  longing,  and  pleading, 
furnished  with  three  Bishops,  thus  becoming  qualified,  according 
to  the  oldest  Canons  in  existence,  to  propagate  its  own  line  of 
Apostolic  succession,  "even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 

But  now  we  turn  back  a  little  to  another  interesting  chapter  in 
American  Church  History.  Nearly  three  years  before  the  conse- 
cration of  Bishops  White  and  Provoost  in  England,  that  is,  in 
1784,  another  line  of  Episcopacy,  through  the  Scottish  line  of 
succession,  had  been  introduced  into  New  England,  under  these 
circumstances.  In  1782  a  plan  designed  as  a  temporary  substitute 
for  Episcopacy  had  been  published  by  Dr.  White,  a  sort  of  super- 
intendence7 or  moderatorship  in  the  person  of  a  Presbyter,  that 
was  supposed  by  him  to  be  justified  by  the  necessity  of  the  case. 
The  plan  was  professedly  to  give  way  or  be  superseded  whenever 
lawful  Bishops  could  be  obtained.  Had  this  scheme  been  adopted, 
as  was  recommended  by  the  high  authority  of  Dr.  White,  it  would 
probably  have  ended,  like  all  other  schemes  of  the  kind  in  the 
history  of  the  Church,  professedly  at  first  temporary  and  designed 
to  meet  exigency,  in  becoming  a  permanent  sectarian  organization 
with  its  blind  following  of  the  multitude.  The  proposed  plan 
gave  great  alarm  to  the  Church  in  Connecticut,  which,  having 
been  trained  by  continual  combat  with  the  Puritans,  in  Church 
principles,  was  determined  to  stand  or  fall  by  the  Church  of  Holy 
Scripture  and  Primitive  Antiquity.  Accordingly,  the  moment 
that  peace  was  declared  in  1783,  they  elected  Dr.  Samuel  Seabury 


8  American  Crutch  Review. 

for  their  Bishop,  furnished  him  with  testimonials  and  sent  him 
to  England  for  consecration.  But  the  English  Bishops  could 
not  consecrate  a  Foreigner  without  a  special  Act  of  Parliament, 
which  was  refused  to  them.  After  waiting  in  England  more  than 
a  year,  with  no  prospect  of  success,  the  Clergy  of  Connecticut 
directed  their  Bishop-elect  to  proceed  to  Scotland  where  he  was 
consecrated  at  Aberdeen,  14th  Nov.,  1784,  or  nearly  three  years 
earlier  than  Drs.  White  and  Provoost.  Bishop  Seabury, 
on  returning  to  his  Diocese,  went  vigorously  to  work,  but 
for  several  years  took  no  part  in  the  proceedings  outside  of  his 
own  Diocese.  We  are  indebted  to  this  staunch  old  Bishop,  it  may 
be  mentioned  in  passing,  for  the  insertion  in  the  Prayer  of  Con- 
secration in  the  Communion  office,  of  the  Invocation  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  "  to  bless  and  sanctify  the  Creatures  of  Bread  and  Wine," 
after  the  Use  of  the  Scottish  Communion  office,  which  is  not 
found  in  the  English  office. 

As  yet  there  was  no  union  among  the  Episcopal  Churches 
in  the  United  States;  only,  a  large  nucleus  for  a  general  union 
existed  among  the  States  southward  of  New  England,  comprising 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland, 
Virginia,  North  and  South  Carolina.  But  there  was  a  sincere  de- 
sire felt  for  general  union  of  the  whole  Church,  which  was  sure  to 
work  its  way,  in  due  time,  to  the  desired  end.  By  the  time  of  the 
adjourned  meeting  of  the  General  Convention  of  1789,  the  New 
England  Churches  had  all  acceded  to  the  General  Constitution, 
adopted  during  the  previous  session  of  that  Convention. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  Convention  of  1789,  which  wit- 
nessed the  Union  of  the  Church  under  a  Constitution,  witnessed 
also  in  the  same  year  the  Union  of  the  States  under  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States.  That  Convention  also  presented  an 
Address  to  Washington  which  they  opened  with  saying  "  that  with 
the  highest  veneration  and  the  most  animating  national  consider- 
ations we  express  our  cordial  joy  on  your  election  to  the 
Chief  Magistracy  of  the  United  States."  President  Washington, 
after  heartily  thanking  them  for  their  affectionate  congratula- 
tions, closed  his  reply  with  this  memorable  benediction, "  May 
you  and  the  people  whom  you  represent  be  the  happy  subjects 
of  Divine  benediction,  both  here  and  hereafter  1"     May  the  bene- 


The  Church  tn  America.  9 

diction  thus  invoked  by  the  Father  of  his  Country  be  abundantly 
fulfilled  through  the  ages! 

At  this  point,  looking  back,  we  pause  to  note  the  remarkable 
synchronisms  between  the  dates  and  great  epochs  of  our  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  history.  This  Church  and  the  American. States  had 
their  Colonial  training  together  up  to  1775.  After  that  year,  they 
passed  through  the  trying  ordeal  of  the  eight  years'  struggle,  each 
reduced  to  the  lowest  extremity  and  almost  laid  in  ruins.  With 
1783,  on  the  return  of  peace,  began  their  common  era  of  uprising 
and  resuscitation.  The  year  1789  marks  the  era  of  time  when 
the  National  Constitution  and  the  Constitution  of  this  Church, 
as  a  National  Church,  both  went  into  operation;  and  we  our- 
selves know,  from  the  events  of  our  own  day,  how  the  fortunes 
alike  of  Church  and  State  have  again  synchronized  in  division 
and  in  re-union.  History,  as  the  order  of  ages  rolls  onward,  in 
its  divinely  purposed  manifestation  of  results  will  evolve  more 
and  more  luminously  the  plan  of  Divine  wisdom  that  lies  hidden 
in  such  wonderful  coincidences  of  times  and  events — " series  junc- 
turaque  rerum." 

Before  closing  the  review  of  our  early  Church  History,  it  may 
be  interesting  to  notice,  as  a  matter  of  history,  what  was  the 
professed  relation  of  the  Methodists  in  those  times,  to  the  Church 
of  England  in  America ;  for  it  was  as  far  back  as  1735  that  John 
and  Charles  Wesley,  both  of  them  Presbyters  of  that  Church,  came 
over  to  America,  where,  during  a  stay  of  about  three  years,  they 
gathered  the  rudiments  of  a  Methodist  society.  From  that  time 
onward,  and  all  through  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  the  Metho- 
dists professed  to  consider  themselves  as  belonging  to  the  Church 
of  England,  claiming  for  their  preachers  to  be  only  lay-preachers 
and  resisting  every  attempt  to  set  up  for  themselves,  as  a  Church, 
for  the  administration  of  the  Sacraments.  Their  separation  from 
the  Church  of  their  baptism  did  not  take  place  till  1 784,  after  the 
war  was  over,  when  Mr.  Wesley  appointed  Dr.  Coke  and  Mr. 
Francis  Asbury  to  be  joint  Superintendents  over  the  Methodists 
in  this  country,  and  also  two  others  to  act  as  elders  among  them, 
in  baptising  and  administering  the  Lord's  supper,  for  the  first 
time.  Wesley,  in  England,  laid  hands  upon  Coke,  who  was 
already  a  Presbyter  of  the  Church  of  England,  like  himself. 
2 


10  American  Church  Review. 

Coke  thereupon  came  over  to  America  and  laid  hands  upon 
Asbury,  one  of  the  lay-preachers  of  the  Society.  Such  was  the 
beginning  and  origin  of  "  Methodist  Episcopacy "  or  rather 
"  Methodist  Superintendency."  For  Mr.  Wesley,  the  father  of 
Methodism,  never  designed  either  Dr.  Coke  or  Mr.  Asbury  to 
bear  the  title  of  "  Bishop,"  whatever  else  was  his  purpose  in  lay- 
ing hands  upon  Dr.  Coke.  The  proof  of  this  fact  is  taken  from 
Lee's  History  of  Methodism,  wherein  he  affirms  thai;  in  the  year 
1787  (or  three  years  after  the  assembling  of  the  first  General 
Conference  in  Baltimore  under  Superintendent  Coke),  Mr.  Asbury 
reprinted  the  General  Minutes  of  that  Conference  in  a  different 
form  and  under  a  different  title  from  what  they  were  before, 
styling  them  "  A  form  of  discipline  for  the  ministers,  preachers 
and  members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  America, 
etc."  In  this  reprint  of  the  Discipline,  he  altered  the  title  of 
"  Superintendent "  into  that  of  "Bishop."  "  This  was  the  first 
time"  says  Lee,  "  our  Superintendents  ever  gave  themselves  the 
title  of  Bishops  in  the  Minutes.  They  changed  the  title  them- 
selves, without  the  consent  of  the  Conference."  This  alteration  of 
title,  contrary  to  Mr.  Wesley's  intention,  was  energetically 
resented  by  him,  in  a  letter  written  to  Mr.  Asbury,  under  date  of 
September,  1788,  from  which  we  take  the  following  extract : 
"  How  can  you,  how  dare  you,  suffer  yourself  to  be  called  Bishop. 
I  shudder,  I  start  at  the  very  thought.  Men  may  call  me  a  knave, 
or  a  fool,  or  a  rascal,  or  a  scoundrel,  and  I  am  content,  but  they 
shall  never,  by  my  consent,  call  me  Bishop.  For  my  sake,  for 
God's  sake,  for  Christ's  sake,  put  a  full  end  to  this !" 

And  Superintendent  Coke  himself,  in  a  letter  addressed  to 
Bishop  White,  dated  April  24,  1791,  and  published  in  White's 
Memoirs,  confesses — "  I  am  not  sure  but  that  I  went  farther  in 
the  separation  of  our  Church  in  America,  than  Mr.  Wesley,  from 
whom  1  had  received  my  commission,  did  intend.  He  did  indeed 
solemnly  invest  me,  as  far  as  he  had  a  right  so  to  do,  with  Epis- 
copal authority,  but  did  not  intend,  I  think,  that  an  entire  separa- 
tion should  take  place.  This  I  am  certain  of,  that  he  is  now 
sorry  for  the  separation." 

But  had  Mr.  Wesley  waited  a  little  longer  on  God's  time, 
which   is   always   man's   best   opportunity,  he  would    have  been 


The  Church  in  America.  1 1 

saved  from  that  rash  act  done  by  him  at  Bristol,  the  ultimate  con- 
sequences of  which  to  the  cause  of  Christianity  in  this  country 
no  human  vision  can  foresee.  For,  as  we  have  seen,  about  this 
very  time  (1784),  Dr.  Seabury,  Bishop-elect  of  Connecticut,  was 
on  the  point  of  leaving  England  for  Scotland,  for  the  purpose  of 
receiving  consecration  at  the  hands  of  the  Scottish  Bishops.  And 
in  point  of  fact,  he  had  received  consecration  14th  November, 
1784 — more  than  five  weeks  before  Superintendent  Coke  had  met 
the  Conference  at  Baltimore,  on  returning  to  America. 

Mr.  Wesley  could  hardly  have  been  ignorant  of  these  facts  con- 
cerning Dr.  Seabury,  as  they  were  the  talk  of  the  time  ;  and  they 
were  well  known  to  his  brother  Charles,  who  expressed  his  mind 
concerning  them  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Chandler,  of  New  Jersey,  from 
which  we  extract  at  some  length  : 

I  can  scarcely  believe  that  in  his  eighty-second  year,  my  brother,  ray  old  inti- 
mate friend  and  companion,  should  have  assumed  the  Episcopal  character,  ordained 
Elders,  consecrated  a  Bishop,  and  set  him  to  ordain  lay-preachers  in  America.  I  was 
then  at  his  elbow  in  Bristol,  yet  he  never  gave  me  the  least  hint  of  his  intention. 
What  will  become  of  those  poor  sheep  in  the  wilderness — the  American  Methodists  ? 
How  have  they  been  betrayed  into  a  separation  from  the  Church  of  England  which 
their  preachers  and  they,  no  more  intended,  than  the  Methodists  here?  Had  they  had 
patience  a  little  longer  they  would  have  seen  a  real  primitive  Bishop  in  America,  duly 
consecrated  by  the  Scotch  Bishops  who  have  their  consecration  from  the  English 
Bishops  and  are  acknowledged  by  them  as  the  same  with  themselves.  There  is  not, 
therefore,  the  least  difference  betwixt  the  members  of  Bishop  Seabury's  Church  and 
the  members  of  the  Church  of  England.  You  know  that  I  had  the  happiness  to 
converse  with  that  truly  Apostolic  man,  who  is  esteemed  by  all  who  know  him  as 
much  as  by  you  and  me.  He  told  me  he  looked  upon  the  Methodists  in  America  as 
sound  members  of  the  Church,  and  was  ready  to  ordain  their  preachers  whom  he 
should  tind  duly  qualified.  His  ordination  would  indeed  be  genuine,  valid  and  Episcopal. 
But  what  are  your  poor  Methodists  now  ?     Only  a  new  sect  of  Presbyterians. 

Such  was  the  judgment  of  Charles  Wesley,  the  sweet  singer  of 
Methodism,  concerning  his  brother  John's  act  in  laying  hands 
upon  Coke.  But«as  late  as  1789,  five  years  after  that  act,  John 
Wesley  himself  made  this  declaration. 

I  declare  once  more  that  I  live  and  die  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 
that  none  who  regard  my  judgment  or  advice  will  ever  separate  from  it. 

Our  limits  forbid  more    than  a  condensed   notice   of  the   Early 
Church  in  North  Carolina.     Its   history  is   best  gleaned  from  the 


12  American  Church  Review. 

abstragjjs  pf  fl*p  Lettecs  of  tha-Missionaries  supported  here  by  the 
Venerable  Society_for  the  propagation  of  the  G  ospeLin-Foreign 
Pjirts. "  These  were  required  by  the  Society's  rules,  to  send  over 
their  reports  every  six  months.  The  impression  left  on  our  mind 
on  reading  years  ago  those  abstracts,  published  in  England  dur- 
ing the  colonial  times  in  a  sort  of  "  Spirit  of  Missions  "  periodical, 
was,  that  the  colonial  clergy  of  North  Carolina,  though  quite  few 
in  number,  were  a  most  faithful  and  jiard-working  band  of  men. 
Indeed,  as  a  general  thing,  the  Venerable  Society's  Missionaries, 
both  in  this  and  the  other  Provinces,  were  the  choice  ministers  of 
that  day  on  this  Continent.  Very  few  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  in 
these  after  times,  will  have  it  recorded  of  them,  at  the  end  of 
their  labors,  as  is  recorded  of  Rev.  Mr.  Hall,  one  of  the  Society's 
Missionaries  in  North  Carolina,  who  died  in  1759,  that  he  had 
baptised  10,000  persons,  including  children  and  white  and  black 
adults,  and  had  traveled  35,000  miles  as  travel  was  in  those  days,' 
besides  visiting  the  sick  and  distributing  tracts. 

A  few  statistics,  drawn  from  the  Society's  correspondence  and 
other  sources,  are  here  presented,  with  their  respective  dates: 

In  1701,  the  year  of  the  Society's  charter,  North  Carolina  con- 
tained 5,000  inhabitants,  besides  Negroes  and  Indians,  who  all 
lived  without  any  form  of  public  worship  and  without  schools. 

In  1705,  or  about  two  years  after  the  establishment  of  the 
Church  by  law  in  North  Carolina,  the  first  church  was  erected  in 
the  Chowan  District,  nor  is  it  known  up  to  172S,  which  marked 
the  close  of  the  Proprietary  Government,  that  more  than  two 
churches  had  been  erected  in  the  Province  of  North  Carolina. 

In  1725,  there  were  eleven  Parishes  or  Precincts  containing 
near  10,000  Christian  souls,  without  one  minister  of  the  Gospel  to 
officiate  among  them. 

In  1732,  after  a  previous  exploration  of  the  Province  by  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Blair,  the  first  Itinerant  Missionaiw,  Mr.  Boyd,  was  sent 
over  by  the  Venerable  Society.  He  found  there  not  a  single  min- 
ister of  the  Gospel,  besides  himself. 

In  1745,  Mr.  Hall  writes.  "  No  clergjmian  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land in  North  Carolina,  that  I  can  hear  of,  but  myself  and  Mr. 
Moir." 

In  1755,  the  population  amounted  to  near  80,000,  with  but  five 


The  Ch  ur  ch  in  A  m eric  a  .  1 3 

Episcopal  ministers.     Five  years  later  still,  there  were  but  eight! 
clergymen  left  in    the   Province    to   officiate    in    29    counties  or 
parishes.     Meanwhile,  the  population  was  rapidly  increasing,  hav- 
ing trebled  itself  within  the  thirty  years  before  the  Revolution. 

The  Parishes  or  Precincts  into  which  the  Province  of  North. 
Carolina  was  divided,  were  Counties  of  immense  extent,  lying 
northward  and  southward  of  Neuse  River  and  bounded  within 
Cape  Fear  River  and  the  coast.  Once  or  twice  there  were  at- 
tempts made  to  pstahlish  Missions  in  .th r _ jffJULt ?X  westward  of  the 
Cape  Fear  among  the  Catawbans  in  Mecklenbere;  County,  but  we 
read  of  no  results.  To  perform  their  ministrations  in  these  Coun- 
ties constant  travelling  was  required  on  the  part  of  the  Mission- 
aries. The  Methodists  afterward  borrowed  this  Itinerant  feature 
of  the  Society's  Mission  work  and  incorporated  it,  with  great 
effect,  into  their  system.  Indeed,  after  we  leave  the  towns, 
especially  amid  the  sparse  population  of  a  new  country,  there  is  no 
other  way  of  regularly  reaching  the  people  than  by  the  Itinerant 
mode,  and  a  few  zealous  ministers,  by  this  means  may  be  enabled 
to  supply  the  indispensable  demands  of  church  people,  as  well  as 
extend  the  Gospel,  over  an  immense  territory.  But  the  Colonial 
Church  of  North  Carolina  had  also  her  centres  and  strong  points 
in  the  towns  of  Edenton,  Wilmington,  New  Berne  and  Bath, 
where  there  were  churches,  schoolhouses,  chapels  and  other  paro- 
chial conveniences.  No tt  however,  till  1763,  was  finished  tbejfirst 
and  probably  theonly  Glebe  House  in  the  Province,  and  that  was 
i n  St.  Thomas^_Parish,  BatL 

To  give  some  idea  of  the  relative  proportions  of  the  members  of 
the  Church  of  England,  especially  in  Eastern  North  Carolina,  to 
the  rest  of  the  inhabitants,  at  different  times  before  the  Revolu- 
tion, we  quote  from  the  Report  of  the  Missionaries.  In  1761, 
Mr.  Reed,  Missionary  in  Craven  County,  computes  about  2,500 
whites  there,  of  whom  about  1,800  were  members  of  the  Church 
of  England,  the  rest  Protestant  Dissenters  ol  various  names, 
except  about  nine  or  ten  Papists.  -v 

Rev.  Mr.  Stewart,  of  St.  Thomas'  Parish,  Bath,  computes  2,200 
whites  there,  seven-eighths  of  whom  belonged  to  the  Church  of 
England. 


14  American  Church  Review. 

In  1765  Governor  Tryon  wrote  to  the  Society  : 

That  every  sect  abouuded  except  the  Romanists,  but  he  reckons  the  Church  of 
England  to  have  the  majority  in  the  Province,  and  doubts  not  that  the  greatest  part 
of  every  sect  would  come  over,*could  a  sufficient  number  of  exemplary  and  orthodox 
clergy  persuade  themselves  to  settle  in  this  country. 

But  it  was  in  vain  for  the  Church  of  England  to  seek  long  to 
hold  her  own  against  such  increasing  odds  when  the  Province  was 
rapidly  filling  up  from  abroad  with  Germans,  dissenting  English, 
Irish  and  Scotch,  and  she  herself  was  without  any  source  of  sup- 
ply, for  her  clergy,  short  of  the  Mother  Country.  For  her  clergy's 
support,  there  was  only  an  establishment  by  law,  in  name,  with- 
out revenues.  Tjn3ir_jprincipal  means  of  support  was  the  £50 
sterling,  which  the  Venerable  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel,  allowed  to  each  of  its  Missionaries. 

ATelter  of  ParsoTrMifleiT'w^o'^ied  in  the  adjoining  County 
of  Burke,  some  years  ago,  furnishes  us  with  these  interesting  par- 
ticulars. He  states  that  he  made  his  first  essay  as  a  lay -preacher 
with  the  Methodists,  when  they  professed  to  be  members  of  the 
Church  of  England.  But  in  the  year  17S4.  he  accompanied  Dr. 
Coke  to  a  Conference  in  Franklin  County,  in  this  State.    He  says  : 

Our  chief  conversation,  during  the  time  I  was  with  him,  which  was  for  some 
weeks,  was  on  the  subject  of  organizing  what  they  call  their  Episcopal  Church,  on 
which  we  could  not  agree,  as  the  idea  was  early  and  deeply  fixed  in  my  mind,  and  I 
may  truly  say,  my  conscience,  that  the  Apostolical  Succession  must  ever  descend  and 
continue  unbroken  with  the  Church  of  God.  And  however  inconsistent  with  this 
assertion  some  of  my  subsequent  conduct  may  appear  to  be,  yet,  at  this  moment,  I 
am  certain  it  is  the  truth. 

The  inconsistency  he  refers  to,  was  his  leaving  the  Methodists 
on  that  scruple,  and  afterward  receiving  ordination  among  the 
Lutherans  in  Rowan  County  of  this  State,  who,  however,  in 
the  letters  of  orders  they  gave  him,  expressly  reserved  his  right  to 
attach  himself  to  the  ministry  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
should  the  Providence  of  God  ever  afford  him  an  opportunity  ; 
which  opportunity  he  afterward  enjoyed  and  embraced  at  the 
hands  of  Bishop  Moore,  of  Virginia. 

The  first  public  effort  of  the  Church  in  North  Carolina  after 
the  Revolution,  to  recover  herself,  was  made  in  the  year  1790, 
November  12th,  by  a  Convention    appointed  to  meet  at  Tarboro'. 


The  Church  in  America.  15 

They  elected  deputies  to  represent  them  in  the  General  Conven- 
tion of  1792,  also  a  Standing  Committee.  For  the  two  subse- 
quent years  no  Convention  met ;  but  during  that  interval  Rev. 
Dr.  Hailing  was  ordained  by  Bishop  Madison,  of  Virginia,  which 
was  the  first  ordination  after  the  Revolution,  held  expressly  for 
the  Church  in  North  Carolina.  He  became  Rector  of  Christ 
Church,  New  Berne. 

Another  Convention  was  held  at  Tarboro',  May,  1794,  when 
Rev.  Charles  Pettigrew,  one  ot  the  five  clergy  that  are  known 
to  have  remained  steady  at  their  posts  in  North  Carolina  during 
the  Revolutionary  War,  was  elected  to  be  Bishop  of  the  Diocese 
of  North  Carolina.  Bishop  White  states  in  his  Memoirs  that 
Mr.  Pettigrew  set  off  to  attend  the  General  Convention  for  the 
purpose  of  being  consecrated,  but  was  unable  to  reach  Philadel- 
phia in  time.  Parson  Miller,  in  the  published  letter  before 
referred  to,1  states  that  he  had  it  from  Mr.  Pettigrew  himself,  that 
he  thought  the  election  of  a  Bishop  premature,  and  that  he  sub- 
mitted to  the  election  of  himself  only  to  prevent  the  acceptance 
of  the  office  by  some  one  else.  A  dreary  night  set  in  upon  the 
Church  in  this  State,  and  indeed  over  the  United  States.  In  1811 
there  was  not  a  single  candidate  for  Holy  Orders  in  the  American 
Church,  and  Bishop  White  feared  that  it  would  again  be  com- 
pelled to  have  recourse  to  the  Church  of  England  for  the  renewal 
of  its  Bishops.  A  wide-spread  spirit  of  infidelity,  caught  from 
France,  had  infected  all  grades  and  classes  of  society.  In  the 
front  ranks  of  infidels  were  to  be  found  those  whose  forefathers 
had  been  the  children  and  zealous  friends  of  the  Church.  But 
in  1819  the  tide  began  to  turn.  Bishop  Moore  opens  his  notice 
of  the  visitation  he  paid  to  the  Church  in  North  Carolina  in  1819, 
with  these  words :  "  The  Church  in  that  State  is  rising  in  all  the 
vigor  of  youth." 

The  Rev.  John  Stark  Ravenscroft  was  consecrated  the  first 
Bishop  of  North  Carolina  during  the  session  of  the  General  Con- 
vention at  Philadelphia,  May,  1823.  It  is  not  our  purpose  to 
follow  the  subsequent  history  and  progress  of  the  Church  in  this 
State,  under  her  line  of  Bishops. 

1  Churoh  Retlew,  July,  1850. 


16 


American  Church  Review. 


We  have  seen  from  the  present  survey  that  this  Church  is  the 
old  Church  of  North  Carolina,  for  a  long  time  the  Church  of  the 
majority  of  its  population,  notwithstanding  the"  grievous  disad- 
vantages she  labored  under  from  the  necessity  of  supplying  her 
ministry  from  beyond  the  sea,  for  want  of  her  own  Bishop  ;  and 
that  historically  and  synchronically  she  has  been  associated  with 
the  life  of  the  State,  whether  in  prosperity  or  adversity. 

What  the  American  Church  most  pressingly  wants  now,  what 
she  ever  has  wanted  and  ought  to  pray  for,  never  so  earnestly  as 
now,  in  prospect  of  plenteous  returns,  is,  that  her  Lord  would 
send  forth  more  laborers  into  the  harvest. 

"  They  shall  prosper  that  love  Thee.  Peace  be  within  Thy 
walls  and  plenteousness  within  Thy  palaces  ;  for  my  brethren  and 
companion's  sake,  I  will  wish  Thee  prosperity." 


JAKVIS   BUXTON. 


«-«?"V^  i 


V 


■^ 


